WHAT HAPPENED???

                                                                        Pat                   Gabe

                                                                          !                         !

August 11, 2022

Last blog entry June 16, 2022

Almost 2 months later, wow!!!

Well, since my last entry there have been a plethora of changes in our itinerary and cruising plans! Many are aware that our intentions to cruise Alaska this Summer have been postponed for a future date.  Notice I said intentions as this was recommended to us at the beginning of our cruising career to say instead of plans. This was more due to outside influences and obstacles that were out of our control like weather, boat maintenance or repair issues, or governmental restrictions. 

This time, our intentions changed due to something more internal. Stephen and I had patiently waited  2 months in Hawaii for a weather window to come to fruition for our sailing journey to Alaska. We even changed our initial landfall from Kodiak Island to Sitka thinking it would allow more cruising time in a more relaxed manner, always the goal, really… 

On June 16, 2022, Stephen and I weighed anchor and left Hanalei Bay in Kauai for our passage to AK. Two days later, on June 18, 2022, we made the difficult decision to head back to Hawaii. We had sailed hard out the gate, going to weather and enduring nightly, relentless squalls that caused fatigue right off the get-go, compounding Stephen’s sea sickness and making it intolerable and seem daunting. He was quite convinced at the time that he wanted to end the passage and we would return to the marina. A series of quick decisions were then made, including my signing back up to work at my hospital. I was fearful of facing a large boat delivery bill which after inquiry would have been 24,000-30,000 not including airfare and food and other expendables for the crew. So my fear of large delivery bills was not unwarranted. 

After a week in port together post the 4-day passage in totality, there was some serious debriefing that coincided with daily phone calls to inquire about boat delivery captains, prices, and availability to ideally fall into the weather window for a safe passage that historically closes by mid-September. 

Could we salvage a cruising season? “ No” as we decided if the money we saved for the cruising season would be re-distributed to the boat delivery costs and the cruising weather window would be short. It would be hard to pinpoint a time frame for Soulstice to arrive safely and give us still time to cruise South East AK before mother nature intervened for changing the temperatures and weather. 

Despite this realization, we both were in a work mode attitude of triage. We both quickly let go of the thought of cruising in AK and focused our energy on a Soulstice rescue mission. We wanted Soulstice out of Hawaii ASAP. The marina is extremely costly, the cruising grounds are limited and restricted and Hawaii is not close for us to get to Soulstice. 

Our new goal was just to move our beautiful, floating home to Washington. That was our eventual destination after cruising AK anyway. The other caveat to this plan was navigating the EXTREMELY saturated boat market and waiting lists to get ANY KIND of slip in the Pacific North West. This is NOT just for a liveaboard,  this is for any transient slip!!! We were on a waiting list at Blaine as well as Shilshole in WA.  We did start to look at other marinas but they too had LONG waiting lists, like 50 +  boats on the list for a slip our size.  The wait list varies from 1-10 years depending on the size of your boat and Soulstice at 40ft but really 43 with boat sprit and Hydrovane measures up at 43ft and is within the most desired length of 40-50ft slips. Uggh!!

Unless you are in the cruising world or your home habitat is a marina, this waiting list phenomena of the last 5 years primarily, most folks typically have naivete.  An analogy that would be similar would include the crazy housing market and car market, where basically what is on the market is limited and good luck because it will be snatched up in a second, fights ensue and cash paid over the asking price out of desperation. Most marinas are typically state-owned/government-run facilities and the rules ARE the rules! We did decide we would move the boat and still try to investigate our options for a slip for Soulstice. 

So, back to the planning for moving Soulstice… Boat delivery costs ranged from $8/mile and the journey could be 3000 miles or some professionals demanded a daily rate of anywhere from $1200-1500/day. This would be for them and their 2 crew members but did not include provisioning food for them, their airfare, and other incidentals. This was enlightening to us but the costs seemed relatively similar when we called around. 

Back in the day, some older cruisers told us how boat delivery used to be only $1.00 per mile. Well, things have changed fo’ sure!!! Just like everything else in life. At my age, I could even brag how gasoline was 97 cents/per gallon when I turned 16. Ha!! Stephen and I were given a gentleman’s name for boat delivery that seemed very promising and less about the money and more about the journey although still very qualified. He was willing to have Stephen join him which would alleviate some costs and he was 1/3 of the bill that we were calculating for the others. A contract was about to be signed and last minute he said he had another commitment his wife reminded him of and he had to decline. 

We were quite heartbroken as we were excited to have someone with an excellent sailing resume, highly regarded by our cruising friends, and within our price range to cancel. During this time we chatted with several friends discussing our dilemma to get references for potential delivery captains but also started to create a mental and physical list of sailing friends who could also join as crew.

I was definitely committed to going back to work. I had no issues with doing the passage physically or mentally but my workplace was very short-staffed and my return to help out was definitely welcomed. This also has been my place of employment since 2009 and they have generously allowed me to participate in this cruising lifestyle and welcomed me back to work on several occasions now. I would not and could not cancel my return back to work to help move the boat at this juncture. Stephen reluctantly honored my feelings on this commitment. I was committed to the passage but once things changed I did make a new commitment and I am someone who keeps my word. 

He then started to re-evaluate his ability to move Soulstice with a crew. Initially, when we visited this proposition at sea and he was still feeling ill, to decide whether could we go back and get crew and head back out, he was not for this idea. Now after exploration of the costs of boat delivery and even the difficulties to hire someone in a relatively short time frame, the idea of a crew was more appealing and perhaps our best option. 

The hard thing was he was going to stay with the boat until whoever came to move the boat aka the boat delivery guy/ crew and or the crew we hired. Hanging out in Hawaii may not seem like a terrible thing but the marina is expensive, you are not spending $$ because you are watching your finances and your weather window starts to get smaller… 

I will cut to the chase and just say after several phone calls to different friends we scored Gabe Harriman and Pat Walker!!! It is not an easy task to find 2 people who can fly into Hawaii in a week or two and then give up to 4 weeks without a time restraint on the back end to move our sailboat!!! Seriously, start going over your friend list and see whom you can come up with???

During this process, we did connect with some folks we had not spoken to in quite some time and even though it was to solicit them for a passage, to be honest, it was some really great phone calls and reconnections and rekindling of previous friendships! We were grateful for that and our friends despite knowing the nature of our call also seemed to appreciate the catch-up! 

So back to Gabe and Pat, our time generous crew! Gabe is a single-hander of an Island Packet, SV Aiyana. We met him in the Sea of Cortez at the end of summer 2020 and then re-visited in 2021 in Puerto Penasco when we got Soulstice ready to go sail to HI from Cabo. Pat is a long-time skydiver/base jumper friend of Stephens. He also has spent time racing on sailboats. Both have never done a passage but both are with a spirit of adventure and curiosity. Stephen and I were so grateful as truly it was only 1-1/2 weeks since our return to the marina and the hurried phone calls to coordinate logistics to get the new passage started. 

It was hard to leave on June 25 to head back to Reno. We did most of the leg work for what transpired into a 3 man crew eventually prior to my departure back to work. Gabe was a definite for a while and then once Pat signed on things moved quickly for the 2nd departure from Hawaii. 

The time from the boys arriving in Hawaii and then during the passage, I feel like Stephen should narrate. It was his journey. I went to work straight away and have continued… Working all kinds of hours to help my group has been more feasible as I am a single lady of sorts and my crazy schedule only affects me. I did return to the basement of the Jaggers:) They kindly welcomed me (us) back into their lives. Our future plans will evolve and we decided to leave it at that.

SV Soulstice did arrive in port to Blaine Harbor, Washington on August 6, 2022, after a 30-day journey leaving out of Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii on July 7, 2022. 

Stephen’s passage narrative is to be published soon with associated amazing fish picks and video...

Goodbye Beach Night- leaving the marina in am for the passage! 

The post passage hug! 

On arrival to Blaine harbor, Mark and Molly Welch greeted Stephen and the boys and the post-passage celebration was soon to begin! I was on my work stretch but with plans to arrive 2 days later. 

Molly, Stephen, Pat, unknown character:) and Mark ( left to right) - mark and molly are friends from Shilshole and now our dock neighbors in Blaine on their massively gorgeous 65ft steel-hulled boat Koda

Sharing of fishing success on passage for a sushi rolling night! 

Where is Gabe?? Asleep, a long hazy slumber overdue after a tiring passage! Good on ya' Gabe- rest up and thanks again for all your efforts!